Student suspended for posting rap song loses appeal; court sees blurred lines in Internet age
An en banc federal appeals court has upheld the suspension of a Mississippi high-school student who posted a rap song outside of school that threatened two coaches he accused of having sex with students.
The student, a senior who called himself “T-Bizzle” in the rap song, had claimed in his lawsuit that the school violated his First Amendment rights. How Appealing notes the decision (PDF) upholding summary judgment for the school by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Our holding concerns the paramount need for school officials to be able to react quickly and efficiently to protect students and faculty from threats, intimidation, and harassment intentionally directed at the school community,” the majority opinion said.
The opinion said First Amendment decisions recognizing boundaries between on-campus and off-campus speech are difficult to apply in the Internet age. “Students now have the ability to disseminate instantaneously and communicate widely from any location via the Internet,” the court said. “These communications, which may reference events occurring, or to occur, at school, or be about members of the school community, can likewise be accessed anywhere, by anyone, at any time.”
The student posted the song on Facebook in January 2011 and, when school officials confronted him, he posted another refined version on YouTube. The “incredibly profane and vulgar rap recording” accused the “coacha roaches” of having sex with students and made threats, according to the appeals court. The threats by the student included:
—Run up on T-Bizzle / I’m going to hit you with my Rueger.
—You f—— with the wrong one / going to get a pistol down your mouth / Boww.
—Middle fingers up if you want to cap that n—- / middle fingers up / he get no mercy n—.
At a disciplinary hearing, the student said he wanted to “increase awareness of the situation” and he didn’t mean he would shoot anyone. Instead, he said, he was “foreshadowing something that might happen.”
The disciplinary committee upheld a seven-day suspension and ordered the student to be placed in the county’s alternative school for the remainder of the grading period, which was about six weeks. When the student appealed, the school board upheld the decision.
The 5th Circuit’s majority opinion said the rap recording threatened, harassed and intimidated the coaches, and the posting could have been reasonably foreseen to cause disruption at school. The court didn’t reach the issue of whether the lyrics constituted a “true threat.”
“If there is to be education,” the court said, “such conduct cannot be permitted. In that regard, the real tragedy in this instance is that a high-school student thought he could, with impunity, direct speech at the school community which threatens, harasses, and intimidates teachers and, as a result, objected to being disciplined.”
The dissent argued the student’s speech deserved protection because it addressed matters of public concern. “Although the song does contain some violent lyrics, the song’s overall ‘content’ is indisputably a darkly sardonic but impassioned protest of two teachers’ alleged sexual misconduct,” said a section of the dissent joined by one other judge.
The case is Bell v. Itawamba County School Board.
